The Pains Of Moisturizer
by ScarecrowSchofield
Summary: It's a Sunny day in LA, and Jack gets the day off. What will happen to our much loved character?


This was another contest entry over at the archives, in which we had to write, amongst other thing, about Jack/Chloe ending up falling asleep in the sun and the result if quite painful. After many ties and voting, it came runner up. Enjoy!!

Ah, the sun. That's what Jack loved about LA. It hardly ever rained, and when it did, it was welcomed after the long periods of dryness. He finally had a day off after 3 constant weeks of working. They had fooled a major terrorist plot and lost some good agents. But after all the final paperwork has been complete, even Chappelle couldn't say no to letting him take a break.

He normally wasn't one for sitting around in a garden doing nothing, but for once, he wanted to relax. His tan usually came from the hours he put in in the field, but as he had either been stuck inside planning the operation, or on stakeout duty at night, his tan had seriously disappeared. He borrowed a deck chair from Michelle about two years ago, for a barbeque party, but apart from that it had never seen daylight again. After dusting off any cobwebs, Jack set it up in the garden. Heading back inside for a few more items, he noticed the thermometer on the wall. 98ºF. [I'Wow' [/Ihe thought[I'Sure as hell in a heat wave.' [/I

While searching the house for the things he would need, without having to get up for a while, Jack changed into a pair of swimming shorts. Arms full of suntan lotion, his radio, a cooler packed with a few bottles of beer and ice, and his Aviator sunglasses, Jack headed back outside. He carefully applied the suntan lotion, and tuned the radio to K-L-O-N Los Angeles, Klone Radio, and lay back on his lounger. As Kip Casper starting introducing the next song he was going to play, Jack felt the tug of sleep. The radio faded in and out, and he was gone.

Jack woke with a start. A quick look across his body, seeing himself in the shade, he knew hours must have passed. Thank god he put on suntan lotion. He turned to his cooler, to find all the ice had melted, and the beer had started to turn warm. He stretched and picked everything up, to take back inside. He emptied the water in the cooler onto his plants, and put the untouched beer back in the fridge and continued to the bathroom to put away the sunscreen. But as he opened the cabinet door, he found the sunscreen staring back at him. He looked back down into his hand, and found just ordinary moisturizer sitting there. Shit. He checked the alarm clock in his bedroom and found he had been sitting out there for at least 6 hours. Shit shit shit. He was gonna be as sore as hell in a few hours. He reached back in the cabinet for the sunburn lotion, and gently applied it to the skin that would've been exposed. He could feel the heat already.

He went into the kitchen to cook himself something for his dinner, then heading off to bed. The next day at work was gonna be hell if he really had got sunburnt. He couldn't sleep properly, the sheets made his skin itch like crazy, but he couldn't touch it; he didn't want to make it any more painful. He tried rubbing in some more sunburn lotion, but it did little to ease his pain. As his alarm clock went off the following morning, Jack gingerly walked into the bathroom. He didn't want to look in the mirror. He couldn't. He knew what his face was going to look like. But he had to. He had to see what the damage was. He looked. The only thing he could do was gasp. Tony was gonna love this.

He showered under very cool water, and for the 10 minutes he was in there he forgot about the pain, and enjoyed the cooling sensation of the water. Getting dressed was an entirely different matter. He slept in the nude for the first time in years, just so he didn't have to have another layer of cloth in contact with his skin. But no matter what shirt he wore, it drove him mad. He ended up with a light, loose fitting, white cotton shirt, that he would normally wear if he were on holiday, and a pair of tracksuit pants. He didn't care what he looked like, as long as it didn't hurt. If Chappelle saw him, he would have a fit, but he really didn't care what the Director thought. And for once, he hoped he [bwouldn't[/b have to do any field work. He would just have to send the new kid, Chase, if there was any to do. That kid was eager to learn and eager to impress.

As he reached CTU, Jack entered through the back doors, kept his sunglasses on, and walked head down through the back corridors. As he reached his office, he let out a sigh that no one had seen him. He was just about to remove his sunglasses when he saw Tony had noticed him, and was walking towards his office. There was nowhere he could go, and he waved Tony through his door. Thank god his office was dark, and Tony didn't seem to notice the sunburn. But he noticed the glasses.

"Jack, why have you still got you sunglasses on? You don't need them on in here?" Crap, he had him. What was he gonna say? There was no response that didn't involve drawing his gun and telling Tony where to stick his question, so he removed them. All was silent, as Tony just stared at his face. Then he burst out laughing. Drawing his gun was a serious consideration at the moment, but he still couldn't do it. "Look at your face!!! You fall asleep or something Jack? Coz the outline of your sunglasses is as clear as day!! You look like someone spray painted your face red when you had your sunglasses on!" Tears began rolling down Tony's face and he had to use Jack's desk to support himself. That's when Jack leapt up and pushed Tony on his sofa.

"Shut up, Tony! Just shut up! It's not my fault sun block and the bottle of moisturizer looks the same!" This made Tony laugh even harder.

It was going to be a long day.

Thanks for reading, and comments would be greatly appreciated!


End file.
